Milica Iličić is a doctoral candidate at the Department of Slavic Languages affiliated with the Institute for Comparative Literature and Society.

Her dissertation, Joy in Dark Places, puts the Russian philosopher Mikhail Bakhtin in conversation with contemporary theories of affect, exploring possible connections between ethical actions, aesthetics, and joy. Bakhtin’s concepts of dialogism, polyphony, and carnival are applied to Dostoevsky’s novels as well as films of the Yugoslav director Dušan Makavejev, and extended beyond the literary medium they emerged from. Earlier in her studies, Milica conducted research in multiple areas that explore the topic of embodiment, including world dance traditions and trauma theory.

In Spring 2021, she taught an undergraduate course of her own design, Thinking Bodies: Literature, Film, and Performance. The course description, syllabus, and student final projects can be found on a dedicated website. In the past, she acted as sole instructor for Russian and Bosnian/Croatian/Serbian language, and as teaching assistant on content courses on Slavic culture and literature.

Over the past five years, she has worked with professor Aleksandar Bošković to create a comprehensive online open educational resource for teaching and learning Elementary Bosnian/Croatian/Serbian, now publicly available at this website.

Aside from her academic work, she works as a bidirectional English/Serbian translator and oral interpreter, and as a consultant for tech and venture capital companies.

Milica is a recipient of the Harriman Institute Academic Year Junior Fellowship, as well as the Harriman Fund for Slavic Studies Award, and five consecutive PepsiCo travel grants.